In the largest country of the post-Soviet space, Kazakhstan, in mid-2021, there is a new activation of the vector of the class struggle, which can develop into a serious mass revolutionary movement with a competent political strategy of the leaders of the socialist opposition. Over the past year, this huge country in Central Asia has been covered with an unprecedented wave of strikes, strikes and protests. The strikes are self-organized, unauthorized in nature: pro-government trade unions do not participate in them. Many strikes turn into the seizure of the territory of enterprises. Both the Kazakh media and – led by the Russian coordinators of the neo-imperial information space of the “commonwealth countries” RT and Sputnik – diligently cut off real information and serve it through false, opportunistic filters …

The epicenter of the strike movement was again the city of Zhanaozen, where in 2011 the Kazakh authorities suppressed the strike of oil workers in the most brutal and bloody manner. On June 30, 2021, workers of the KEZBI LLP oil service company serving the Mangistaumunaigas gas company organized a “wild” strike and held a rally with posters and chanting slogans. The strikers demanded higher wages, changes in the labor system and better working conditions. The total number of participants in the initial strike and rally in Zhanaozen reached 1,200. Immediately at the first mass action, on the territory of the enterprise, the workers demanded an increase in wages and a revision of the tariff scale. Great indignation was also caused by the level of equipment that did not meet labor protection standards – the protesters demanded that the equipment be brought to the required standards. Among other demands of the workers were the introduction of compensation for workers in hazardous production and the payment of the “thirteenth wage”. After the bright start of the struggle of the “KEZBI” oil workers for their rights and the improvement of working conditions, news of the strike spread throughout Kazakhstan – soon the strike wave spread to other enterprises, spreading to the whole of Zhanaozen and the Mangistau region.

Fearing a new intensification of the class struggle, the representatives of the authorities urgently left for the place of the strike. High-ranking representatives of the administration of the oil-producing company LLP “KEZBI” demanded to urgently stop the action, threatening the strikers in case of their refusal. However, pressure and threats provoked a backlash: workers accused officials and employers of discrimination, and the rally continued with renewed vigor. As a result, the authorities proposed creating a conciliation commission to discuss the demands and the labor conflict. Many workers considered that this was a fraudulent maneuver on the part of the administration, with the help of which they wanted to temporarily create the impression that they were interested in fair and thoughtful agreements with the workers, thereby – taking the agenda of the protesters away from the urgent need to solve their social problems and from the topic low salaries.

This strike wave was preceded by pinpoint strikes, also in Zhanaozen and in the Mangistau region, which took place in May at service enterprises, which were removed from the main production and turned into LLPs more than ten years ago as part of the optimization. As a result of this “optimization,” local oil workers have lost much in wages and social guarantees: at some enterprises, the wages did not even reach 150 thousand tenge (352 USD).

It is worth mentioning here that in Kazakhstan, both the authorities and the employers – the employers ruthlessly persecute independent trade unions. According to the legislation adopted in 2015, in fact, it is not possible to hold a strike “according to the law” – they are prohibited. That is why the strikers called their speech not a strike, but a “mass hunger strike”, which is, in fact, true: in order to knock out any softening from the capitalist class in the future, in the present it is necessary to “ascetically tighten their belts” and not agree to any what compromises.

Despite promises of action by the administration and the authorities, the strike participants did not leave the working sites of KEZBI LLP, did not disperse – they began to spend the night on the territory of the enterprise in order to continue the action and put forward their demands. The next day, July 1, the oil workers’ “mass hunger strike” was continued. Meanwhile, on the initiative of local authorities and employers, a conciliation commission was created, which, as was quite expected, could not come to any result. Those of the workers’ activists who entered the commission from the side of the strikers eventually left it, since none of the requirements they listed for consideration were fulfilled.

The arrival of the akim (head of the region) of the Mangsitau region did not lead to anything either. He refused to interfere in the conflict between the oil workers and the company’s administration on the pretext that he was not able to interfere in the affairs of a private company.

After that, as a tactical measure, the oil workers of the enterprise on strike in Zhanaozen officially announced the start of a mass hunger strike, which is traditionally a veiled form of continuing workers’ actions and spreading the strike to neighboring enterprises of other service companies, which by that time had long existed a picture of equally ruthless exploitation. Oil workers. Unprecedentedly low wages for workers in this industry and harsh working conditions were exacerbated by inflated production rates, which had to be carried out against the backdrop of constant layoffs, when the work teams turned out to be understaffed.

It turns out that upon the arrival of the head of the Mangsitau region, the administration of the oil-service company “KEZBI” LLP had its own serious calculation, which was not destined to come true. Speaking to the workers on July 3, the head of the region Serikbay Turumov offered them a kind of handout – in the form of a 30% increase in wages and a 35-45% increase in bonuses, and he issued his proposal as a joint agreement with the employer, and accepted in the interests of the workers, who actually carried out a capture strike … After the oilmen rejected the promises made by Serigbai Trumov, which were not confirmed by anything in reality, the strike continued. All her time, an almost unlimited rally was held on the territory of the enterprise in Zhanaozen.

On July 4, 2021, deputies from the ruling despotic Nur Otan party and the systemic right-wing populist party with a pan-Turkist bias Ak Zhol tried to calm the workers. They went to them with proposals to disperse, – “after all, Trumov promised you an increase in salaries!” Representatives of the pro-government parties received a harsh refusal from the strikers. At the same time, the protesters, including those on hunger strike, stated that “no one elected representatives of Nur Otan and Ak Zhol – they were appointed from above, so there is nothing to listen to them!”

On the seventh day of the strike, the oil workers of Kezbi LLP won – they achieved a 50% increase in salaries, from 200 to 400 thousand tenge (941 USD), as well as promises from the management of the enterprise to satisfy all 12 demands. The victory was wrested from the capitalist elite only thanks to the cohesion of the oil workers, their determination and uncompromising attitude, as well as moral support from comrades from neighboring enterprises and sympathetic local residents in a region in which continuous unemployment reigns.

Thus, the striking workers of Kezbi LLP set an example for all other oil workers not only in Zhanaozen, but also in all oil-producing regions. So, already on July 13, 2021, workers of the security organization KMG-Security, which physically guards the production facilities of Ozenmunaigas, went on strike. KMG is a subsidiary of the national company KazMunayGas, employing 1200 people. Gathering at the company’s office building, the workers demanded an increase in wages to 150 thousand tenge (352 USD), as well as the issuance of bonuses and bonuses before public holidays. Similar demands were made during last year’s strike, but then the employers managed to induce the dissatisfied to return to work without their satisfaction. This time, despite the persuasion and threats of the head of the Zhanaozen branch of KMG-Security and the city prosecutor, the workers refused to leave and stop the action, since not a single promise from the management was fulfilled. Hundreds of people held a rally near the agency’s office in Zhanaozen – for this rally, several large tents were even pitched near the agency.

Employees of the KMG-Security branch, who guard production facilities at the Karazhanbas field, on the Buzachi peninsula in the Mangistau region, also supported their comrades in Zhanaozen. They videotaped the company’s management demanding a wage increase, and then began a protest. As it became known, those of them who were supposed to go on watch to the Karazhanbas field in the morning of July 16, 2021, refused to go there.

The strike of employees of the subsidiary company “KMG-Security”, owned by the national mining company “KazMunayGas”, which lasted for 5 days, ended in victory. Moreover, all workers won both in the branch serving the Ozenmunaigas enterprise and in Karazhanbasmunai, on the Buzachi peninsula of the Mangistau region, who also achieved a one hundred percent increase in wages. At about the same time, starting from July 15, workers of the transport enterprise “MunaiSpetsSnab Company” LLP went on strike. Their requirements included: registration of an employment contract in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 33 of the Labor Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan; increase in wages by 100%; payments of benefits; processing fees; availability of a bus for transporting workers, as well as – removal of the tender system and irrevocable transfer to UzenMunayGas OJSC – that is, the cancellation of outstaffing and outsourcing! Several hundred workers of this enterprise took part in the strike, who, in addition to all of the above, demanded a change in the timing of the shift and the replacement of a 24-hour shift with a 12-hour shift, as well as payments of bonuses, additional payments for overtime work and wages during the repair of equipment. Particularly increased pressure and threats were applied to the striking transport workers, all the strikers were directly dependent on mass dismissals. At the same time, it is worth noting that many workers of MunaiSpetsSnab Company LLP still do not have any labor contracts – they do not have the opportunity to prove a violation of labor legislation even in court. In fact, they had no choice but to resort to a seizure strike, carrying out an action on the territory of the enterprise and not allowing the removal of the equipment.

The strike of workers of the transport enterprise “MunaiSpetsSnab Company” LLP, which began on July 15, lasted a week, until July 22. All this time, unprecedented pressure was exerted on the workers. More than 300 protesters were forced to block the gates of the enterprise and stayed near their vehicles day and night, setting up their tents. Their employers threatened them with mass dismissals, refusing to conclude employment contracts in the future, and also promised that they would hand over the files to the police and the KNB. The akim of the city and deputies from the ruling Nur Otan party repeatedly came to the strikers – they persuaded the workers to end the strike. In order to complicate the situation of the strikers, the administration cut off the water on the territory of the enterprise and closed the toilets. But the employees of “MunaiSpetsSnab Company” were not going to give up. Their struggle was watched with sympathy by the workers of the entire working class of Kazakhstan, they were given solidarity support by local residents and fellows from other enterprises: the supply of water to the tent camp of the striking workers was organized, food, money, blankets and mattresses were brought to them. It was this solidarity and determination of all workers that played a decisive role! On July 22, a 7-day strike of transport workers from MunaiSpetsSnab Company LLP ended in victory. The strikers achieved a 90% increase in wages, the issuance of labor contracts and improved working conditions. The only thing that they did not succeed in was to return this LLP back to the state company Ozenmunaigas, which is part of KazMunayGas.

After the end of the strike, the workers of the service transport company recorded a video in which they thanked the residents of Zhanaozen, as well as their fellows from neighboring enterprises and companies, and announced their victory.

In Almaty, about the same period of time, starting from July 8, a Glovo courier strike took place. The 50 couriers who decided not to start work arrived at the office where the operations managers are located. However, they refused to enter into negotiations with the strikers. After that, the striking employees of the company went to meet with the management of the Glovo office, which is located in the Nurly Tau complex in Kazakhstan. The guards refused to let them inside – then the strikers blocked traffic on the central streets in order to draw attention to their protest and to be able to present the Glovo leadership to submit a list of their demands. The list of 23 pointe shoes contained the requirement: to introduce a decent basic wage, as opposed to the current priority bonus system, to change wages for work in bad weather, to determine the limits for deliveries, as well as other important points related to improving the working conditions of couriers. In response to radical measures – blocking the road leading to the Nurly Tau complex, Glovo’s administrative managers went to meet with the protesters, agreeing to meet some of their demands. Perhaps in this case, the precedent of the strike of the couriers of the Wolt company, who went on strike for a month of this, also played a role – then the Almaty authorities intervened in negotiations with the strikers, and the demands of the company’s workers were satisfied.

On July 8, 2021, railway workers from Shymkent joined the striking representatives of the industrial infrastructure of Kazakhstan, and on July 13, the metro builders of Almaty refused to go underground. And everywhere the requirements are the same: apart from the top priority – a 100% increase in wages, it is extremely low here), – the requirements for improving working conditions, for payments for processing. As for the technical side of improving working conditions, the proletariat of Kazakhstan includes in its requirements for the owners of enterprises the obligatory purchase of new equipment. It has become customary that representatives of big business, who own entire industries and who are the richest people in Kazakhstan, are extremely scrupulous in investing in labor protection measures. Collectives of workers at most enterprises are forced to work on equipment dating back to the Soviet period, which served for a very long time and efficiently, but is already outdated, wear and tear is extreme: it is falling apart before our eyes.

As soon as the workers of “KMG-Security” won – on July 19 a new strike broke out in Zhanaozen – at the transport enterprise LLP “KUNAN HOLDING”. Its workers decided to use in the struggle for their rights the same tactics that their predecessors used this summer, marked by a sharp class struggle. employees of KUNAN HOLDING LLP gathered at a rally, at which they announced the start of their strike, and then recorded a video message to three influential persons: to the president of the country, to the head of KazMunayGas, to the akim (head of the region) of Mangistau region. In these appeals, they substantiated their demands, listing them, to increase wages and improve working conditions. In order to be able to take part and observe the course of possible negotiations with representatives of administrative officials of different levels, the workers pitched portable tents on the territory of the enterprise – the air temperature outside reached 43-45 degrees of heat – and began the action. They were immediately supported by local residents and employees of neighboring companies, who brought water and food to the strikers. Together, people discussed the next steps in their struggle, sharing them with those who supported them.

On July 21, 2021, it became known that the workers of KUNAN HOLDING LLP, who were on strike for three days, won in Zhanaozen, having achieved a 100% increase in wages and promises to improve working conditions.

On the same day, strikes of workers and women workers of several more enterprises began in the Mangistau region. So, in Zhanaozen, the first women’s strike in the city of NBC LLP workers began. The demands of the women workers touched upon the same burning topic – increasing wages and improving working conditions. They were followed by the workers of the Aktau oil service company and the OILFIELD EQUIPMENT AND SERVICE company.

OILFIELD EQUIPMENT AND SERVICE workers went on strike at all fields in the Mangistau region, as well as in Aktau and Zhanaozen.

In parallel with the above-described social processes, starting on July 19, 2021, workers of BatysGeofizService LLP went on strike, putting forward demands similar to all other requirements of the striking workers of service enterprises in the region. On July 20 in Zhanaozen, workers of a communal enterprise also went on strike, complaining about the lack of basic working conditions, the lack of overalls, even soap and gloves. In addition, for a long time, the public utilities were forced to work without any vacations required by labor legislation. Naturally, they did not have any payments for processing: employers in difficult conditions of unemployment and inflation are trying to squeeze all the juices out of the workers. The striking utilities demanded a 100% increase in wages: today this is one of the lowest paid jobs – the employees of the utility company received only 60 thousand tenge (141 USD). As of July 21, collectives of six enterprises took part in the strikes. Willingness to join the strikes was expressed by workers from eight more service companies, where lawlessness, difficult working conditions and meager wages flourish.

In the previous two weeks, four strikes by service companies ended successfully for collectives, which triggered strikes throughout the region.

On July 22, 2021, there were reports of a strike at the seventh enterprise – in the service company KazPromTechCompany LLP. The workers, like their colleagues, demanded higher wages and better working conditions. Collectives of seven more enterprises in the Mangistau region considered joining the strike.

Thus, within two weeks, the fifth such strike ended in victory!

On July 22, janitors joined the striking drivers and loaders of the Tazalyk-S communal enterprise, who had been demanding higher wages and better working conditions for four days. At the striking enterprises in Zhanaozen, in Akatau and in the fields, meetings of labor collectives were constantly held. Employees of NBC LLP recorded a new video in which they announced that they have been on strike since July 19 and are not backing down on their demand for a 100% wage increase. Until these days, representatives of employers and authorities have not come to the striking women of NBC LLP.

On July 23, in Zhanaozen, a strike of workers of the LLP “Uts Llc” enterprise began, and the workers of the auxiliary enterprises of the UTS and KRLS also announced that the work had been stopped. Demands were put forward to increase wages by 100%, to accrue payments due for overtime, to introduce a 13th wage and to improve working conditions.

By this time, capitalist employers had come to the conclusion that in cases of confrontation with striking workers, against the background of examples of enterprises where workers on strike had already achieved their demands, their position was not up to par. Threats of the owners of mass layoffs, on the basis that these strikes are “illegal”, as they understood from previous days at other enterprises, do not stop anyone. Real workers’ solidarity in action is difficult to cope with. However, the desire of the owners of enterprises not to lose a drop of profit, the reluctance to make concessions to the workers is a strong incentive for anti-legal actions, which Capital sometimes resorts to. Once again, like ten years ago, during the epoch-making eight-month strike in Zhanaozen, the Kazakh big owners decided to resort to the use of hired bandits – pan-Turkist ideologized militants from private security companies, or, as they are called in other countries of the world, ultra-right paramilitaries. However, having arrived at several enterprises on the night of July 22-23 in order to put pressure on the striking oil workers, using brute force, the militants received a tough rebuff.

On July 25, a strike by service workers, which had raged since late June in Mangistau Oblast and Zhanaozen, spread to neighboring Atyrau Oblast, where Eurest Support Services LLP (ESS) employees stopped work at the Tengiz field. In fact, the workers repeated the demands of their fellows from Zhanaozen and Aktau, seeking higher wages and better working conditions. Several hundred people in the morning organized a rally, at which they demanded that the representative of the company’s administration increase wages by 100% and improve working conditions. According to workers, the salary in this company is more than two times lower than in other similar service companies in Tengiz.

Almost simultaneously with them, workers of another service company, COCR, also announced that they were ready to go to a rally and strike, as they were also not satisfied with such a low salary.

A real threat has been created for regional capital: if employers do not make concessions, the strike will cover other teams of service enterprises of the Tengiz and Kashagan fields, as well as spread to the neighboring West Kazakhstan and Aktobe regions. After all, all workers in the oil and gas industry had common requirements and general dissatisfaction with the so-called “optimization policy”, as a result of which their enterprises were turned into private limited liability companies and separated from the main production.

On July 26, workers of Ozenenergoservice went on strike in Zhanaozen, providing electricity to the city and nearby villages. The striking power engineers assured that during the strike, electricity will be uninterruptedly supplied to regime enterprises and institutions of health care, internal affairs, the Ministry of Emergency Situations and other services that ensure the functioning of the city. The power engineers asked for forgiveness from the residents of the city in advance, asking them to enter the position of workers who receive scanty wages. The team of the enterprise was inspired to this strike by the news about the successful victories of employees of other service companies. Power engineers decided to follow their path and demand better working conditions and a 100% increase in wages.

On the same day, 26.07, two strikes in Zhanaozen of workers of “UTS lls” and workers of NBS LLP ended in complete victory of the strikers. Their salaries were raised, overtime premiums were introduced, and they were promised to improve working conditions. At the same time, after the end of the strikes, the workers did not speak with grateful speeches in relation to officials and owners. Realizing that it was only through their struggle that these improvements became possible, the workers and women workers behaved with dignity. In Zhanaozen and the region, as of July 26, 2021, about six enterprises remained on strike.

On the morning of July 29, a message was received about the start of a strike of workers of the contracting organization “Industrial Service Resources” LLP – at the Karazhanbas field in the Mangistau region. The strikers put forward a demand to abolish outstaffing and outsourcing, and to admit all employees of the LLP, in the amount of 570 people, to the staff of Karazhanbasmunai JSC. They also demanded an increase in the salary of some of the employees to the level that the full-time employees of Karazhanbasmunai JSC receive. As a result, the managers of “Karazhanbasmunai” JSC agreed to include only 55 workers in the staff, and an increase in wages by only 4%. The employers and the authorities were afraid to create a precedent and agree to meet this demand: if this happened, dozens of collectives of other enterprises would go on strike, putting forward similar demands. It is noteworthy that representatives of the top administration of Karazhanbasmunai JSC did not come to the place of the strike, simply ignoring the demands of the strikers.

On July 30, after a two-day strike, the workers of the private LLP Industrial Service Resources achieved some concessions: the managers promised them to consider the issue of “phased recruitment of outstaffing workers in the field into the KBM staff within a month, taking into account blue-collar occupations and production needs”.

Since July 30, KMG EP-Catering LLP and ABUEV GROUP LLP have joined the striking enterprises, the workers of which also demanded an increase in wages by 100% and an improvement in working conditions. These are mainly workers working in canteens, maintenance and cleaning of shift camps. They, and not without reason, believed that as a result of optimization and withdrawal from the main production, they became hired slaves of private limited liability companies. The workers said that none of the employers and officials came to them, and therefore they were forced to directly contact the administrations of the city of Zhanaozen and the Mangistau region.

A new strike is brewing in Mangistau Oblast, this time by workers of Emir-Oil LLP. In their video message, the workers demanded that the President of Kazakhstan raise wages by 70%. Prior to that, in 2019, after promises from workers to go on strike, the ruling administration raised wages by 10%. Now the authorities and employers have again offered workers an increase – by another 10% (compared to the inflation rate in the country, this is nothing). The collective of workers did not compromise with the representatives of the bourgeoisie. The workers decided that if the administration of Emir-Oil LLP refused to increase their salaries by 70%, they would go on strike.

On August 2, 2021, our comrades reported that in the previous week, the power engineers of Ozenenergoservice and the Aktau Oil Service Company had reached a serious step in the fight for their labor rights. They got a 100% pay increase. For the fourth day in Zhanaozen, the strike of workers of KMG EP-Catering LLP and ABUEV GROUP LLP continued. Strikes and protests broke out in other parts of the country as well.

Earlier on June 28, 2021, mothers with many children in Astana, after representatives of the ministry refused to leave at the request of activists for communication, resorted to an attempt to enter the building on their own, despite the opposition of the increased security. The reason for the radical protest was the reluctance of officials to meet with activists. As a result, women protesting against the layoffs of their husbands – breadwinners of large families from their jobs – paralyzed the functioning of the Ministry for 6 hours, but no one came out from there to the outraged women. Mothers with many children gathered to express their demands for employment, housing and an increase in child benefits. Pro-government media and, at their suggestion, bloggers on social networks, posted reports about the incident, calling the demonstration of women at the door of the Ministry of Industry “storming the building.” However, the public can form its own impression of how dangerous the “stormtroopers” looked by watching the footage, for example, on the YouTube channel, under the headline “Mothers with many children stormed the ministry building in Astana.”

To increase the wave of strikes that swept Kazakhstan this summer, the successful strike of workers from another service enterprise, LLP “Kezbi” in Zhanaozen, also worked. The strikes began not only in the extractive industry, but also engulfed enterprises in different cities of the country. The emergence of new strikes is influenced by the general situation associated with an increase in the cost of living, a drop in the purchasing power of the national currency tenge, as well as with employers’ non-observance of labor laws and with difficult working conditions on worn-out equipment.

In Almaty, on July 20, dozens of ambulance station employees protested, complaining about delays in coronavirus allowances and working conditions. They say that “truth-telling” workers face pressure. In the city of Semey (formerly Semipalatinsk), the drivers of the Semey Bus municipal vehicle fleet, which had ceased operations a month earlier, went on strike at the gates of the enterprise. People demanded from the management to pay salaries for June, as well as to make contributions to the pension fund and compulsory health insurance for the entire period of their work. The state-owned Semey Bus fleet began operations in September 2019.

In addition, four months later, his workers went on strike for the first time. Since then, they have regularly gone on strike, demanding that wages be paid off and social security contributions be made. On July 31, 2021, the operators of Astana tower cranes went on a protest and strike and demanded the conclusion of labor contracts, following the example of their colleagues from Zhanaozen.

It is noteworthy that in all labor conflicts and strikes, representatives of official trade unions that are part of the Federation of Trade Unions of Kazakhstan and other registered associations such as “Amanata” and others subordinate to the ruling class of the country have never been noticed. In the regional center of Mangistau region, the city of Aktau, on Saturday, July 24, 2021, activists of the primary organization of the branch trade union of the Fuel and Energy Complex in the Oil Construction Company LLP (OSS) expressed their protest. They held a rally and recorded a special video message, where they noted the facts of pressure and obstruction of trade union activities. It is possible that in the coming weeks, collectives of other service enterprises will join the strike, where workers also receive meager wages, which do not even reach 100 thousand tenge (235 USD).

Today, in the hot days of August, the striking workers of Zhanaozen continue to more and more actively seek their demands and enter a new stage of the struggle.

The month of continuous strikes in Zhanaozen and Mangistau Oblast is ending in favor of the workers, as the strikers’ demands for higher wages and better working conditions are ultimately met. This, by the way, is a good example of success for labor collectives in other industries and regions of the country, and it is no longer possible to stop the chain reaction. For example, last week the power engineers of Ozenenergoservice and the Aktau Oil Service Company achieved their goals, and now they receive 100% of their salaries. But in addition to this, the demand for the cancellation of the previous results of the ongoing optimization policy and the inclusion of private LLPs back into the main production is increasingly coming to the fore in the strikes.

In particular, at the Karazhanbas field in the Mangistau region last week, 570 workers of Industrial Service Resources LLP began a strike, demanding not an increase in wages and better working conditions, but a return to the state of Karazhanbasmunai JSC. It should be noted that in the transport company Kezbi LLP, where the first strike began on June 30 of this year, there was a similar demand in addition to the remaining 11, and the strikes have now covered just mainly enterprises that were previously part of unified production complexes.

As a result of a two-day strike last Friday, the administration of Karazhanbasmunai JSC was forced to make concessions to the workers of the private LLP Industrial Service Resources. The managers even made a corresponding statement: “Having jointly discussed the opinions of workers, as well as legal possibilities, within one month the management of KBM will consider the issue of phased recruitment of outstaffing workers in the field to the KBM staff, taking into account the working professions and production needs.”

This success is of further importance, as it provides an incentive to mobilize workers in auxiliary and service enterprises and companies that have become victims of optimization and privatization policies to seek the reinstatement of employees in the main production of large oil companies. And the fact is that now there are thousands of such limited liability companies throughout the republic and not only in the oil industry, but also in the mining industry and metallurgy, where hundreds of thousands of people turned out to be powerless hired slaves.

In fact, this means an uprising against the previous neoliberal policy pursued by foreign and local managers of mining and metallurgical companies and implemented, including with the participation of the government, according to the templates of the advice of Western consulting firms. Therefore, following the speeches of oil workers from Industrial Service Resources LLP, workers at other fields (there has already been a similar strike at the Tengiz field), as well as miners, transport workers and metallurgists of the Kazakhmys Corporation, Arcelor Mittal Temirtau and other companies in the central and eastern regions of the country.

In fact, this is a new stage of the struggle, which is accompanied by the demands for freedom of trade union activity, which were put forward on July 24 by workers in Aktau of the Oil Construction Company LLP (OSS), and even earlier by the drillers of Kezbi LLP. Therefore, we should expect both an expansion of the strike focus and a qualitative increase in requirements that already relate to the issue of company management and the revision of privatization and the optimization carried out.

In Zhanaozen itself, for the fourth day, the workers of KMG EP-Catering LLP and ABUEV GROUP LLP are on strike, demanding an increase in wages and improvement of working conditions, and the workers of Emir-Oil LLP threatened to strike if their demand for an increase 70% of wages will not be met. These facts indicate that the general potential of demonstrations and strikes has not yet been exhausted, but is only gaining popular energy and social strategic experience.

P.S. I would like to finish our article, relying on the victorious mood of the Kazakh workers, by analyzing the generalizing, positive factors associated with the positive experience of the struggle for the labor rights of the proletariat of Kazakhstan. He passed from the first, brutally suppressed single strike outbreak in Zhanaozen, and achieved impressive successes in his struggle. They give real hope for further victorious stages in defending their labor rights. He entered into a real confrontation with the will of the ruling bourgeois class, which does not want to so easily tread its positions. The opposition of the workers of Kazakhstan is gradually turning into a conscious, class struggle.

However, it is still too early to speak of a victory associated with the fact that the workers managed to get the bourgeoisie to raise wages and improve working conditions – in this difficult time of the economic crisis, it is still too early to speak of a disturbing note. For the entire international labor movement, of which the rebellious Kazakhstani proletariat is an active part, it is necessary to know in advance about those technological countermeasures that the capitalist reactionary despotism is already preparing to forestall the coming social workers’ revolution in Kazakhstan.

The fact is that now, by the middle of 2021, in the ruling elites of Kazakhstan, the tendency of ideological emphasis on the ultra-right, nationalist vector in domestic politics is becoming more noticeable and manifested, even the desire to justify the Nazi accomplices (!). Nationalism is the eternal enemy of the labor movement, helping the bourgeoisie to divide the workers into friends and foes. What is behind this criminal tendency of the Kazakh bourgeoisie? As an established bourgeois clan despotism, the Nazarbayev-Tokayev regime, which is actively supported in its political steps by its “elder brother” from the Kremlin, includes immunity in the form of a Reaction. The reaction is aimed at all-round protection of the interests of the ruling class, and by the most radical methods. This is evidenced by history, the theory of workers’ struggle for their rights: it is obvious to attentive students that any victory of the proletariat simultaneously forces its enemy, the bourgeoisie, to consolidate. The modern capitalist transnational class is equipped with all methods of reactionary struggle against the people, both used in history and new ones, the possibility of which was provided by the development of productive forces, discoveries of scientific and technological progress in the hands of Capital … However, this has always been so, and this did not stop for example, neither the peoples who made the Great October Revolution, nor the Cuban people, who have been opposing their powerful neighbor on the small island of Liberty for 60 years. Therefore, maybe we are exaggerating the colors, and anxiety now is inappropriate?

When today Kazakhstan rises up against the repressive state policy of thousands of interregional labor movements, when more and more enterprises of various sectors of the economy are joining the strike movement, as if in a chain, the Reaction realizes that the next stage could be the social revolution of the proletariat, based exclusively on the socialist and the communist paradigm. Do not underestimate the thousands of factors that are thought through step by step by political analysts serving the ruling class. They are kept so that the Capital in no way is damaged, threatening to further benefit.

The retinue of ideological nobles serving the ruling regime, legislating in the pro-government media and “people’s” TV channels, received assignments – to work in different directions with the mass consciousness of the republic’s society. And one of the main such directions is the introduction of decommunization and anti-Sovietization – it is necessary in the eyes of the population to finally smash the “myths” of the better existence of the proletariat during the period of socialist development, which ended in 1991. This is done through the rehabilitation and new popularization of those whose essence in the twentieth century is wonderful understood, labeling as traitors and mass murderers – nationalists – pan-Turkists, who were used by the propaganda ministry of Dr. Goebbels during World War II. The ruling class of Kazakhstan, as a partial vassal of Putin’s Moscow, and an adherent of world capital, naturally takes an example from the scheme of “reviving a proud national spirit of solidarity.” For five years now, the Russian curators of Nazabayev-Tokayev have been successfully implementing this “solidarity idea uniting the people” in their country, including by praising, reaching political “canonization”, of such historical characters as Admiral Kolchak, Ataman Krasnov, General Vlasov , Mannerheim, Ivan Ilyin – reactionaries and Nazi criminals, traitors and mass murderers of the people. An illustrative example of the impact on the mass mentality of the population is the ideological inoculation from the true class struggle, which was successfully instilled in the people of Ukraine. Now it is the turn of the liberal-conservative Russia, which is entering a period when it ideologically becomes the twin brother of the bourgeois capitalist project of fascization of the political, media, scientific and cultural elites of post-Maidan Ukraine. This bad example is deliberately contagious for the ruling elites of the entire former post-Soviet space. Now it is the turn of the creation of a similar propaganda protective program based on national characteristics for the political elite of Kazakhstan, the processes of enrichment of which at the expense of the working people are now growing exponentially.

In addition to the latent introduction through the media and social networks of the heroism of the creation of a pan-Turkist union of peoples, which we are now observing, there are a number of political and technological methods that have been tested in different countries by representatives of transnational Capital. One of the transient goals on the path of creating a “strong Kazakh nation” – which will guarantee the safe existence of its capitalist class, fused with the international one – is the introduction of new “heroes” into the minds of Kazakh youth, who, in the new ideological paradigm, will consolidate it according to an aggressive nationalist sign. Over time, this can annul the bright protest potential of the young generation of Kazakhs, which is now being born against the background of the growing strike movement in the republic. The reaction, personified in the real personalities of the ruling regime, realizes that it is this protest potential that is potentially the most dangerous, because it is precisely the Kazakh youth deprived of social protection and adequate working prospects that are now becoming more and more ready for nationwide revolutionary action in the name of trampled social justice by the ruling bourgeois class. Of the Republic of Kazakhstan, working closely with international transnational capital, sometimes directly performing its tasks, of course, not without benefit for itself. In this context, the fascization of the Kazakh population that is taking place at the level of the state program is the very disturbing note to which everyone should especially listen and take a closer look. First of all, we need a step-by-step investigation of this work with the Kazakh population, in the framework of which – on the one hand, approval of the unification of youth on a nationalist basis, on the other – intimidation of the working class, employees of private companies, social activists, this summer, for the first time in a long time celebrating victory in their struggle for labor rights.

We, internationalists, are with you, the working people of Kazakhstan! Consolidate in your struggle, do not stop there. But be careful! Tomorrow, the media serving the ruling class of the Republic of Kazakhstan, with the technological information support of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin, will slander your popular protest movement – “Orange revolutionary intrigues of the US State Department” – even if this banal worn-out lie does not demoralize your the spirit of the class struggle for the sake of justice and social equality! In order to help the workers and employees of Kazakhstan struggling for a dignified existence, we decided to resort to an independent investigation, together with our Kazakh comrades, confirming the existing dangerous tendencies in society with a number of factual examples. In the very coming days of August 2021, the first article in this important, in our opinion, direction, prepared under the auspices of the international anti-Nazification project “NURENBERG-2022”, will be published on the web resource.

Internationalist Editorial Board Resistentiam.com
According to the actual data of Comrade Ainur Kurmanov
“Socialist Movement of Kazakhstan”